The fashion for "fruits".

[PadstowGirl]

I see this written a lot.
Surely it's just fruit?

I would say "the fruit salad contains five different types of fruit".

I would only say fruits if it was fruit's, as in the "the fruit's skin was mottled"

Am I the only one who thinks that "Fruit" sounds weird now and doesnt look right either?! It's become one of "those" words!!

I agree with PP that it should only be used when you're talking about multiple different kinds of fruit, and want to highlight that there are different kinds.

I see it as similar usage to "peoples". There are very particular circumstances when it's grammatically correct to say "peoples", and it's the same for fruits.

Fruit is a plural and includes variety so YANBU.

It’s another weird import like ‘veggies’ as a pp said instead of just veg. I just stick to the boring old fashioned way just to subvert this fashion for the watering down of British English.

There is a pub, now a gastropub, on the outskirts of Oxford called The Fishes. I don’t know how far it (or the former building that housed it) goes back, but Oscar Wilde reportedly drank there frequently.

Are fishes somehow different from fruits abd meats?

I'm slightly over-invested in this now.

Isn't it like cheese, in that you use fruit as a collective, uncountable noun (even though you can count fruit...) to refer to a quantity- unless you actually ARE counting them. So you'd always use cheese for singular and plural, unless you're counting the cheese (the cheese board contained three different cheeses). So you only add s/es when you're counting the object concerned. But if there's an uncounted quantity, you'd just use the singular. 'That's a lot of cheese!'

Fruit, fruit, fruits, god that looks really weird.

Froo-it. Better.

"Fruit" is a collective noun, so it doesn’t need an "s" when you're talking about multiple pieces of different types of fruit. Some people add the "s" because maybe they think it sounds cute, it isn't

I'd say the fruits of your labour

I think fruits is acceptable if talking about specific various types of fruit. It's not a hill I'd die on. Unlike the infuriating use of "the data are" vs "the data is".

Yes

and fruits of the forest

A piece of fruit - has the fruit been cut in pieces? A piece of cake I can understand. I need a nap - too much thinking.

Same here. I'm early 60s. Definitely fruit as singular and plural.

Found this on a BBC learning webpage.

“Irregular Plurals

Some nouns, such as fish and fruit, have an irregular plural, fishes and fruits. We use them when we want to talk about different types of a thing in the same category.

I want some fruit. (uncountable – any fruit, I don’t care which. All fruit is the same to me.)
The shop sells many fruits. (plural – many different types of fruit e.g. apples, bananas and pears.)
There were three fish in the tank (plural – all the same)
There were three fishes in the tank. (plural- three different species of fish)”

Just fruit

God, fruit's a weird fucking word though, isn't it?

thanks - i am a TEFL teacher (sometimes) and this is something that comes up a lot. It is good for learners to know.

For me? I can possibly count my use of the word "fruits" (outside of teaching) on the fingers of one hand. I agree with pp that it is not modern British English, although i wouldn't be surprised if it pops up in older literature.

And yes. What a weird word!

I am too then. Multiples of fruit is fruit. Maybe mixed fruit.

Much of this is nonsense, though. Different species of fish are still fish, even when they're referred to as a group.
Multiple types of fruit are still collectively fruit. It's more usual to refer to "different types of fruit" than "fruits".

I don't know if it's more or less correct or not, but usage has definitely changed.

In the UK you might previously be offered a selection of fruit, meat, fish, bread, cheese with the understanding that you were being offered several varieties of these food classes.

Now it's a selection of fruits or a selection of meats or a selection of breads.

I don't spend much time worrying about it, but as an old curmugeon who rails pointlessly against the winds of change, it rankles.

It has its uses. I might use it to describe a variety, e.g, there was an interesting selection of tropical fruits including mango and papaya. Or as has been mentioned earlier, fruits of the forest.

Used by the same people who get pains in their tummies, and like to go on hollibobs with hubby

A selection of tropical fruit sounds fine to me.

I think "Fruits of the forest" is an odd one as it doesn't really follow English usage anyway. It's possible to say "Cheeses of France" or "Cured meats of Germany" but I'd more likely say "French cheese" or German cured meat".

I would say "I have eaten three different fruits today" but if I was checking what shopping we needed I would say "How much fruit do we have?", not "How many fruits do we have?".

It's fruit.
I'm 48.

It's FRUIT of the forest!

I'm in Australia and I've never heard anyone say " pass around the fruits".